Bard questions.

[Tobius]

I find kiting to be immersion breaking because it just seems so awkward to do, I'm not a role player or anything but it just seems ridiculous. Plus I don't have the concentration for it.

I figure I'll just slowly solo or group to level my bard.

1. My bard seems borderline encumbered all the time, yet I hear bards normally have a lot of gear to swap in and out, does str improve as you level? Should I buy weight reducing bags? Anyone else have this problem?

2. (a)Whats the lowest level a bard could solo forager cycle with shit gear?
(b) what's the lowest level a bard could duo forager cycle with a 56 warrior?
Fond memories of doing that on live with my bro, but we were comparatively twinked. compared to classic.

3. When the time comes for the above, is fear kiting the best way to do that? What gear helps fear kiting? (or what gear helps whatever better method?)

4. Any good recommendations for EZ solo camping spots?

[branamil]

1. My bard seems borderline encumbered all the time, yet I hear bards normally have a lot of gear to swap in and out, does str improve as you level? Should I buy weight reducing bags? Anyone else have this problem?

yeah. they are wusses and wear plate. Later on most items get +STR attached to them which helps.

2. (a)Whats the lowest level a bard could solo forager cycle with shit gear?
(b) what's the lowest level a bard could duo forager cycle with a 56 warrior?
Fond memories of doing that on live with my bro, but we were comparatively twinked. compared to classic.

Umm.. 40? 45? You can kill them as long as Fulfils will land. The hardest thing is avoiding the shaman roamers. Just twist selos/fulfils/chant of flame, kite until they die.

3. When the time comes for the above, is fear kiting the best way to do that? What gear helps fear kiting? (or what gear helps whatever better method?)

Kite with selos and chants. All you need is a drum

4. Any good recommendations for EZ solo camping spots?[/QUOTE]

Dont see your level mentioned.

[Legidias]

Fear kiting will always be the best way for those single target kills. Don't just selos and run kite. If they chase you, DoT's only do 75% dmg while mobs are moving, but if feared they do 100%.

You will want to be about 50(+) to do cycle completely. You can kill the forage / hunter at a much lower level, but GL not dying to Harbinger nukes when your fear barely lands and he nukes you to death.

[Tobius]

1. My bard seems borderline encumbered all the time, yet I hear bards normally have a lot of gear to swap in and out, does str improve as you level? Should I buy weight reducing bags? Anyone else have this problem?

yeah. they are wusses and wear plate. Later on most items get +STR attached to them which helps.

2. (a)Whats the lowest level a bard could solo forager cycle with shit gear?
(b) what's the lowest level a bard could duo forager cycle with a 56 warrior?
Fond memories of doing that on live with my bro, but we were comparatively twinked. compared to classic.

Umm.. 40? 45? You can kill them as long as Fulfils will land. The hardest thing is avoiding the shaman roamers. Just twist selos/fulfils/chant of flame, kite until they die.

3. When the time comes for the above, is fear kiting the best way to do that? What gear helps fear kiting? (or what gear helps whatever better method?)

Kite with selos and chants. All you need is a drum

4. Any good recommendations for EZ solo camping spots?

Dont see your level mentioned.[/QUOTE]

I like scrapping so plate seemed to make sense. I'll have to get some gear with Str...

What is fulfil? a song? I can't find it googling? Can't remember that one...

22 currently.

question:
5. If I had like 1.5 K to upgrade this trash gear, what'd you upgrade first?

https://wiki.project1999.com/Opalline_Earring x1 (dunno where other ear went)
https://wiki.project1999.com/Fine_Plate_Collar
https://wiki.project1999.com/Mask_of_Deception
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lambent_Helm
https://wiki.project1999.com/Adamantite_Band
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lambent_Bracers
https://wiki.project1999.com/Hero_bracers
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lambent_Vambraces
https://wiki.project1999.com/Singing_Steel_Gauntlets
https://wiki.project1999.com/Bloodstained_Mantle
https://wiki.project1999.com/Enameled_Black_Chestplate
https://wiki.project1999.com/Cloak_of_the_Ice_Bear
https://wiki.project1999.com/Sludged_Girdle
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lambent_Greaves
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lambent_Boots

https://wiki.project1999.com/Blade_of_Fiery_Lamentations
https://wiki.project1999.com/Melodious_Truncheon
https://wiki.project1999.com/Dragoon_Dirk (range)

https://wiki.project1999.com/Mistmoore_Battle_Drums
https://wiki.project1999.com/Lute_of_the_Gypsy_Princess
https://wiki.project1999.com/Minotaur_Horn
https://wiki.project1999.com/Horn

[Tobius]

Fear kiting will always be the best way for those single target kills. Don't just selos and run kite. If they chase you, DoT's only do 75% dmg while mobs are moving, but if feared they do 100%.

You will want to be about 50(+) to do cycle completely. You can kill the forage / hunter at a much lower level, but GL not dying to Harbinger nukes when your fear barely lands and he nukes you to death.

Thanks for this I did think the previous dude omitted the idea of getting nuked by casters.

So you don't think the warrior could take enough aggro to take the nukes before he had to flee? Does hitting a feared mob break it?

Perhaps I'll aim for 50, what special gear helps with fear kiting?

EDIT: If you root or snare a feared target does it act not feared and stay and fight?

[branamil]

Fear kiting will always be the best way for those single target kills. Don't just selos and run kite.



Not "always". With fear you can't control the pathing, which sucks in a zone with roamers. And if it's much higher level than you, your fear will get resisted and it will turn and hit you, and you'll have to kite it to heal anyways.


If they chase you, DoT's only do 75% dmg while mobs are moving, but if feared they do 100%.


So? The question is to kill a quest mob at a low level, not farm XP as fast as possible

[Tobius]

Not "always". With fear you can't control the pathing, which sucks in a zone with roamers. And if it's much higher level than you, your fear will get resisted and it will turn and hit you, and you'll have to kite it to heal anyways.

So? The question is to kill a quest mob at a low level, not farm XP as fast as possible

I guess the warrior could pre-preemptively kill the roamers or at least zone them before they aggro...

Yeah exp ain't the aim, it's fun and platinum from selling the items.

To clarify are you saying if you get wounded you'd stop fearing and conventionally kite and sing heal song?

[matticas]

Where's Jauna when ya need? Dude hates bards

[Triiz]

Umm.. 40? 45? You can kill them as long as Fulfils will land. The hardest thing is avoiding the shaman roamers. Just twist selos/fulfils/chant of flame, kite until they die.


Not sure if you were responding to his question of what level to solo forager cycle or duo it with the 56 war, but just to be clear to OP there is zero chance a lvl 40-45 bard could solo the 50 wizard that drops Iksar Hide Mask. One ice comet and a few rounds of melee and you are dead. Fear wouldn't land and you couldn't even hope to mez him, Song of Twilight is a level 53 song and wiki says Pixie Strike only mez's up to 45.

[Canelek]

Level 22 bard? At that level for a bard that wants to group I’d suggest Unrest.

[Legidias]

Thats why you pull your kite target to a good spot, then fear kite it. i.e. in TT, pull foragers / hunters to lake and you get no adds. If the mob is already resisting your fear, you're probably not going to land much else on it either. Sure, you could cast Fufil's on something hoping 1/10 lands and kill it eventually, but have fun with your 45 minute kite of a single mob.

Technically, he could aggro kite it starting at lvl 22 with selo's chain and have another lvl 22 beat on a lvl 50 mob. But no one would do this even though its "not farming XP as fast as possible".

So,yes it would be possible to kite around something 30 levels higher than you but you probabl wouldnt want to.

If youre doing it with a 56 war, it could work with aggro kite but you would have to lay in so many snares while trying to keep harbinger mezzed so that you can run out of cast range while warrior hits it whole time. But at that point, ifyoure able to land mezzes enough to lock it, you might as well fear it. You wont live long enough to snare aggro while staying in range of its nukes.

If you have 1.5k, Barbed Dragonscale Boots will last you until you have a raid replacement item. Bards benefit more from tanking stats than any of the other stats (given you have enough STR to not be encumbered).

Rooting a target will 'cancel' the fear, and it will attack whatever is closest in range. Snaring doesnt interfere with fear at all. When you fear kite, you will want to twist fear with selo's chains as well as damage.

[branamil]

Not sure if you were responding to his question of what level to solo forager cycle or duo it with the 56 war, but just to be clear to OP there is zero chance a lvl 40-45 bard could solo the 50 wizard that drops Iksar Hide Mask. One ice comet and a few rounds of melee and you are dead. Fear wouldn't land and you couldn't even hope to mez him, Song of Twilight is a level 53 song and wiki says Pixie Strike only mez's up to 45.

I've done the cycle a dozen times and never seen that guy. So I guess you can imagine that the 1% spawn rate of that mob would make the cycle impossible, but 99% of the time you don't have to worry about that. I kind of assumed he just wanted the key not to hold the whole camp.

[Legidias]

Then why would be doing it without expecting the mobs that drop items, given his aim is platinum and not xp lol. At least be consistent man.

Regardless of aim being xp, plat, or fun, I doubt anyone would want to spend 45+ minute kites of foragers / hunters, and then see a mob holding a 10k item pop and you can't do anything except die to it.

[Triiz]

I've done the cycle a dozen times and never seen that guy. So I guess you can imagine that the 1% spawn rate of that mob would make the cycle impossible, but 99% of the time you don't have to worry about that. I kind of assumed he just wanted the key not to hold the whole camp.

He's definitely really rare, but it would suck to spawn a mob that has a 10k item with a 100% drop rate and not be able to kill him if you were doing the cycle for plat, the mask and BP are the two big items. Wasn't trying to be a dick just wanted to clarify, I didn't see Legidias post mentioning the wizard before I posted.

[zanderklocke]

There are certain summoning mobs on the cycle that you will not be able to easily do as a bard, especially a low level bard. Some of them would still be a challenge for my level 60 bard.

[Murri]

You can absolutely kill the iksar mask mob at those levels. You will just need to charm stuff and send it at him out of range of his casting. Pretty much after the 2nd charm he's gonna just chase you though cause bard charm doesn't work right on p99.

[Tobius]

Wow thanks for all the feedback, nice to see there's cool smart people outside of the insane racists in R&F I remember from years back.

I'm loving there's actually not a consensus on level and fear vs charm... Hmm

I guess I've got fucking ages before I'm high enough level.

I think the absolute highest the bard would be is 52. I want a char to be a dragon alt, and I don't think I'll ever bothering leveling 3 chars up.

I should have clarified the entire purpose is the masks and bp's. So killing whatever drops those, is a must, I guess if there's more than one forager up if there's a named nastier than the bp and mask dude we could just avoid that one and go for other foragers.

[ThePeoplesBard]

I'm loving there's actually not a consensus on level and fear vs charm... Hmm

I should have clarified the entire purpose is the masks and bp's. So killing whatever drops those, is a must, I guess if there's more than one forager up if there's a named nastier than the bp and mask dude we could just avoid that one and go for other foragers.

If you love a lack of consensus, then Bard was definitely the right class for you. Every Bard thread is full of level 60s disagreeing about mechanics, techniques, etc. I'm with you, though--it's a testament to how dynamic the class is, and that's exciting.

And, unfortunately, going "for other foragers" won't work. The Hunter has its own cycle with a set of named, and the Forager has its own cycle with a set of named. If a nasty named in either cycle spawns, you won't see Hunter or Forager again until you gun down the named. When I was soloing at lower levels and spawned Doom, that basically meant my Hunter cycle farming was done for the day because I couldn't kill him alone.

Couple other things I'd point out: I started hating this camp after they instituted lazy aggro last year; it made pulling a named to a safe spot to kill agonizingly slow. I stopped doing the camp outright a few months ago when I kept slaving to spawn a named, then a Ranger or Druid would snag it before I could. There are just too many snipers happy to sit around while a Bard does the hard work, and then they grab the good spawns with their superior Track. It's technically okay by the rules, but I didn't have the stomach for it.

[zanderklocke]

It’s been years since I’ve done the cycle but I feel like there were certain mobs that were pretty darn hard to solo as a bard, maybe it was Dreadlord Fanrik?